Broadcaster ITV Wales was forced to screen news from other areas instead of Wales after power outages at its new headquarters in Cardiff Bay

Frustrated bosses at ITV Cymru Wales have insisted a sudden loss of power which effectively pulled the plug on several days of news bulletins was nothing to do with its recent move to Cardiff Bay.

The broadcaster inadvertently became the story this week as a series of power outages blacked out its Welsh news programmes and forced the company to screen news from other areas instead.

The loss of local news programmes led some to conclude the problem must have been caused by the firm’s recent switch from its long-time headquarters and broadcast studios at Culverhouse Cross.

That was certainly the opinion of some on Twitter who took to tweeting their frustration at the loss of their expected news programmes and went on to decide it must have been caused by the recent switch to the Bay.

One complained: “This is happening all too frequently. Ever since you moved to the Bay.”

Around 100 ITV Cymru Wales staff moved into the company’s new Cardiff Bay headquarters at Assembly Square, next to the National Assembly building, back in June.

The state-of-the-art studio, which occupies 11,000sq ft of the building, included a bespoke HD studio and production and editing facilities.

An ITV Cymru Wales spokesman made it clear the broadcaster’s new facilities and the move to Cardiff Bay were in no way responsible for the blackout of its bulletins.

“We apologise to viewers for the loss of some of our news bulletins over the Bank Holiday. The affected bulletins were our Sunday evening news bulletin and the bulletins in Monday’s Good Morning Britain. Normal emergency protocols were followed and we joined the ITV West news service,” the spokesman said.

“This was not the result of our move to 3 Assembly Square but due to the failure of the electricity substation that provides power to the building. All the businesses in the building were affected.

“An emergency generator was utilised while Western Power carried out work on the substation and subsequent ITV Cymru Wales news programmes on Monday and Tuesday were broadcast as normal.

“However the generator failed overnight on Wednesday resulting in the loss of three Wales bulletins in Good Morning Britain.

“Again normal emergency procedures were followed and we joined the ITV West news opt-outs. The Wales service was restored for our 7.55am bulletin as well as for our lunchtime bulletin.”

The spokesman added: “We apologise once again to viewers for the loss of service. The cause of the failure is being looked into by the power company.”

A spokesman for Western Power Distribution said: “On Sunday August 24 we received a call at 3.15pm regarding a loss of supply at the Aviva Life &amp; Pensions building in Cardiff Bay. ITV Cymru Wales’s studio is based in the building.

“Our engineers found a fault on a piece of equipment inside a substation. We installed a temporary generator and power was restored to the building by 9.33pm on Sunday evening.

“A temporary generator has been in place since Sunday but unfortunately at 1.11am on Wednesday the temporary generator failed. It was repaired quickly and by 2.10am supply was back on. We have been liaising with ITV Cymru Wales in order to cause as little disruption to them as possible.”

The spokesman added: “We are currently investigating the cause of the fault.”

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